But visitors flock every year to catch a glimpse of the haunting figures, including Elizabeth Harper, a lecturer at the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, New York, who took these pictures when she visited the site on holiday.

She said: "These are clearly the bodies of well-to-do parisoners. They wear cravats, vests and jackets. One of them even wears a jaunty hat with a bow.

"Though dehydration has twisted their faces into grimaces, their bodies don't show signs of trauma brought on by poverty and dangerous living conditions.

"It's fascinating to see them looking out from their velvet-lined coffins."

Ms Harper took these eye-popping photos of the ugly mummies over her Easter holiday when she travelled to Mexico to see them for herself.